Jack Pierce, born Janus Piccoula, emigrated to the USA from Greece when he was a teenager. His early career consisted of a variety of jobs including amateur baseball player, manager of Nickelodeon, stuntman and assistant cameraman before he eventually began working at 'Universal City', the 3 year old company that would become 'Universal Studios'. Pierce's interest in make-up began when he met an unknown actor named Lon Chaney, who got film work for his ability to completely transform himself using make-up. After Pierce himself tried his hand at acting for a short while, he decided to dedicate himself to make-up during his time at Vitagraph and Fox's Studios in the 1920's.
In 1928 Lon Chaney went freelance and Pierce was made head of the make-up department at Universal. His break break, however, came when Carl Laemmie Jr (known as 'Junior') took over production from his father and made the decision to begin producing film adaptations of classic horror novels and from 1930 - 1937 Pierce created some of film's most iconic horror characters.
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It began in 1930 with the production of 'Dracula' where Pierce was primarily responsible for the styling of the vampire character and his female victims as the theatre based actor, Bela Lugasi demanded to be able to do his own make-up. One of Pierce's most widely recognised works came in 1931 when he began work on 'Frankenstein' alongside lead actor Boris Karloff, a man he collaborated with on many later films and considered a close friend. Make-up technology at this time was very basic and often very uncomfortable for the actor to wear due to the high levels of toxicity in the products used. In order to complete the transformation into Frankenstein, Karloff would have to sit for 4 hours in the make-up chair whilst Pierce applied first a layer of spirit gum and then built up layer after layer of cotton and collodion (a liquid plastic-like substance). The entire make-up and costume weighed over 35 pounds and was so difficult to get in and out of that often Karloff would go home wearing the make-up, sleep in it with as little movement as possible and then go in the next morning for simple touch ups in order to avoid repeating the application and removal process. A final touch for the character was Karloff's ability to remove a dental plate that gave his face an indentation on one side.
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This was followed by 'The Mummy' in 1932 where Pierce and Karloff worked alongside each other once more to create another iconic and complex make-up. The research that was undertaken for this project was enormous as Pierce wanted his creation of a mummified body to be as true to Egyptian history as possible. He spent a month experimenting with pigments, paints and drying materials to create a material that would give the appearance of rotting bandages without falling apart when applied to the actor. He had an assistant spend a week feeding cheese cloth through a cylindrical device over a gas flame to give the appearance of aged, charred bandages without burning them. In order to obtain the perfect greying-yellow tone Pierce worked with over 20 colours to eventually mix the colour he would eventually use; a mixture of burnt umber, light umber, fullers earth, other colours, glue and hot water that made a mud-like substance.
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The application process was even more gruelling than the 'Frankenstein' make-up; taking over 7 hours. Pierce said that it was the hardest job that he had undertaken in his 20 years in the film industry as the cooked bandages were so fragile that they often fell apart in his hands. The bandages needed to be built up in 3 layers across the body, running in different directions to ensure that no skin would be visible beneath. Unfortunately, one the first few attempts the outer layer crumbled into dust as soon as Karoff tried to move within the casket on set.
The facial application was almost as complex, with a layer of special gum being spread over the face that would help to maintain moisture whilst Karoff was wearing it. Next a thin layer of cotton was applied to the face and once this had set into the glue was manoeuvred and teased out with a pair of tweezers to give the lines and crevices to the face, this was then coated in another layer of gum to retain its shape. As the face had been so greatly altered by this process and was barely recognisable as human anymore, Pierce used greasepaints to restore this human quality and ran brown pencil through the crevices he had created to make them appear deeper. Another problem that he faced was with Karoff's hair, which was jet black and needed to appear the same greyish-yellow shade as the rest of the make-up. For this Pierce applied a coat of greasepaint through the hair as a base and then added fullers earth and facial beauty clay to give the finished result. Once Karoff was all ready on set the final processes could be completed with his legs being bound together with bandages and his eyes sealed closed with rice paper. All of this work and discomfort was undertaken for only 5 minutes of screen time!
Following his 2 most ground breaking make-ups on 'Frankenstein' and 'The Mummy', Pierce went on to work on films alongside the Laemmies such as 'Bride of Frankenstein' (1935), 'Son of Frankenstein' (1939) and 'The Wolf Man' (1941) with Lon Chaney Jr in the lead role that would become another horror classic. His final original make-up was for 'Phanton of the Opera' in 1943 which would be his only monster movie to be shot in colour. Unfortunately the make-up screen time was significantly cut down by the producers as Pierce's original concept was thought to be 'too hideous' for audiences.
Pierce's time at Universal ended shortly after WW1 when the studios merged with International Pictures and many of the department heads, including Pierce, were replaced. He ended his incredible career working on low budget independent films and TV shows and died in obscurity in 1968. His work, however, will be recognised by make-up artists for many years to come as ground breaking and he has been honoured with a tribute DVD, a lifetime achievement award by the make-up union and a proposed star on Hollywood Boulevard.
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